1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid-jetting apparatus which jets a liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid jetting apparatus, in which a liquid supplied from a liquid tank is jetted from a liquid-jetting head, has been hitherto known. The gas is sometimes mixed from the outside on account of various reasons into the liquid flow passage of such a liquid-jetting apparatus ranging from the liquid tank to the liquid-jetting head.
In general, for example, a cartridge, which stores an ink, is detachably attached to an ink-jet printer provided with an ink-jet head for recording a desired image and/or letters by jetting the ink onto a recording medium. The ink, which is supplied from the cartridge, is jetted from the ink-jet head. In the case of the ink-jet printer as described above, the gas is sometimes mixed from the outside via a joining portion between the cartridge and an attachment section for attaching the cartridge, due to any factor including, for example, the exchange of the cartridge. The gas, which is dissolved in the ink, is sometimes converted into bubbles due to the change of the temperature and/or the pressure. If the gas flows to the ink-jet head together with the ink, for example, there is such a possibility that the jetting failure and/or the flow passage clog-up may be caused.
In view of the above, in order to discharge the gas in the ink-jet head, for example, the following arrangement is conceived by utilizing an arrangement adopted for a printer as described in US 2009/0058956 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-199040). That is, a pump is provided at an intermediate position of a flow passage which connects an ink-jet head and a cartridge. The gas is extracted or drawn out together with the ink in the ink-jet head in accordance with the suction driving effected by the pump. After that, the pump is driven in the direction opposite to the direction adopted during the suction driving to extrude or push out only the ink from the cartridge to the ink-jet head.
However, the printer, which is described in US 2009/0058956, requires the pump which is the exclusive sucking means in order to discharge the gas mixed into the ink in the ink-jet head.